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Sunday, 11 June 2017

Escape the Zoo?

Making my escape? Not likely.

Escape the Zoo; it’s something I had as a signature on a
forum many years ago. I doubt I came up with it, but I cannot remember where I
heard it. It comes out of the idea that we’re living in a zoo, of our own
making, but a zoo none the less. We live in a strange, sterile environment,
made of artificial materials, eating industrial foods we’ve never seen before,
like zoo animals. We built our own cage.

The younger me heard this analogy and thought instantly
of escape, I can walk around outside bare foot, go out into nature and. . . And
what? Be free? How short sighted, I wasn’t free, I was looking out a window.
Again I’m not sure if this is my own thinking, or someone else and I forgot
where I first saw it, but my view point has since changed (Thinking some more
and this can’t be my own thinking, I’m just not that switched on). We’re never
getting out. For better or worse, we are stuck in a zoo. We’re not escaping,
where would we go? The wild? What wild? We don’t have the space, let alone the
skills to turn back and be wild. And even if we could, would we? Joe Rogan and
Dr. Christopher Ryan argued this point, and I’m with Joe, the internet is
awesome.

So we’re stuck in a zoo, which we built. It sucks, but
there is hope. We built this place and we can make it better. Our environment
is within our control. We just need to know how to change it, and have the
motivation to change it. We need to eat better, check, we can do this. Trainers
and handlers don’t feed us, we do. We don’t move enough, check, we can do this,
start working out, in whatever way you can and take it from there. This also
gets into the idea that this whole Paleo diet thing is not a historical
re-enactment, but a logical framework with which to make some decisions.

We haven't escaped the zoo, but we have gone on a field trip outside its walls.

As a starting point for food, the basic Paleo/Primal diet
is great, east mostly vegetables and meat, some fruits, nuts and seeds, avoid
industrial foods (grains and vegetable oils). Pretty simple starting point, and
you can go as deep as you like with this stuff but simple gets you a long way.
Next would be movement. I really like Mark Sission’s suggestion of a lot of low
level movement (walking), lift some heavy things and sprint a little.
Variations on this work really well to regain a basic level of fitness. Again
you can get way out into the weeds searching for optimal fitness, or high
performance but these are topics for another day.

From there things get a little trickier and maybe the
benefits get smaller (or more difficult to see). Sleep is a big factor, then
digging deeper into diet and exercise. Community is a huge piece to address
also.

This is all just the start. It’s about environment
design. We are the designers, and the subjects. We won’t create perfect, but it
is within our power to create better. I’m going to try and use this post as a
jumping of point to explore areas of environment (lifestyle design) one small
section at a time, so stay tuned for more.

This post has been largely influenced but so many people
(mostly via podcasts). So if you want more check out Katy Bowman, Kelly
Starrett, Daniel Vitalis, Rafe Kelly, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Erwan Le Corre.
Do a google search and start listening to any podcast with them on it,
especially if it’s between two of them.